McKenzie says Raiders have no interest in Burress, Johnson or Owens

General manager Reggie McKenzie sat down with Jerry McDonald and I and the first topic we hit on was receivers. The Raiders had some injury issues last week with Denarius Moore (hamstring) being sidelined and Jacoby Ford ultimately finding out he needed surgery on his left foot, but McKenzie won’t be signing veteran free agents Plaxico Burress, Chad Johnson or Terrell Owens.

“It’s not just (their) age,” McKenzie said. “If the right player could add to the group … we just didn’t feel that those three were the right ones. Clear and simple. If I felt like they could have added something to what we were doing, I would have strongly considered it.”

The Raiders have four young receivers in Moore, Darrius Heyward-Bey and rookies Rod Streater and Juron Criner to go with veteran Derek Hagan, and McKenzie wants to see them grow.

“It starts with a foundation and you have to have the guys around long enough to develop and see that development,” McKenzie said. “And we do have a couple of guys … we were just hit with injuries at that position so early, especially with your No. 1 going down. Then, a guy like Jacoby who we had plans for. Going into it, you felt good but you miss one guy and that can trickle down quickly. If we add guys, I want to make sure and add a guy that’s going to help this team. I just didn’t think those three guys were the guys.”